Magician Todd Robbins and Teller of Penn & Teller have teamed up for a spooky show called "Play Dead" at the Geffen Playhouse. Robbins was born in Long Beach and used to sneak into the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery to tell scary stories, a sort of precursor to the Geffen show. (Photo by Brittany Murray/Press Telegram)

Magician Todd Robbins and Teller of Penn & Teller have teamed up for a spook show called "Play Dead" at the Geffen Playhouse. Robbins was born in Long Beach and used to sneak into the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery to tell scary stories, a sort of precursor to the Geffen show. One of Robbins favorite spots was this mausoleum in Long Beach. (Photo by Brittany Murray/Press Telegram)

Play Dead

Years ago, after the sun went down on Friday nights, Long Beach native Todd Robbins and his friends would often sneak into the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery. The 100-year-old graveyard, with its mausoleums and old tombstones, was perfectly suited as the background for Robbins’ fascination for the sordid and macabre.

So in the dark chill of the night, with the possibility of getting caught for trespassing hanging over their heads, he would captivate his teenage friends with made-up stories about the people buried there, and then, just when the tension from the morbid tales was ready to snap, Robbins would scare the life out of them with a trick that usually involved an accomplice leaping out at the screaming teens.

Robbins, who grew up to become a professional magician and illusionist, still loves to scare people and he has teamed up with a very successful accomplice to tell more scary stories with the show “Play Dead.” Co-created with Teller, the silent partner in the famed Penn & Teller magic duo, the show opens at the Geffen Playhouse on Wednesday and runs through Dec. 22. There are preview performances at 2 and 7 p.m. today.

“It’s a much more sophisticated version of what I was doing all those years ago. This time all the stories I’m talking about are real,” Robbins said after a long day of rehearsals for the seance-based performance. “We play on a lot of fears and phobias and push a lot of buttons. I lock the door and we have fun.”

Not only are the stories real this time, but they’re also haunted by a few conjured spirits, contain a lot of bloodshed and even include a murder. But believe it or not, there will be lots of laughs, too.

“It’s kind of like those old rides they have at carnivals where you get into a little car and strange and wonderful things scare you, and then you burst out laughing,” said Teller, who directs the show, although he does not take the stage.

“Play Dead” will take place at the Geffen’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater, where the stage has been transformed to resemble an old carnival.

Advertisement

Robbins narrates and is the main performer in the show, which is centered on a collection of about 100 boxes on stage that contain artifacts he has collected since he was a child, including mementos from people whose lives were defined by death such as serial killers and spirit mediums.

Robbins, who begins the show in complete darkness and dressed in a white suit that soon becomes a bloody mess, uses these boxes to tell the stories, and in doing so performs magic tricks, conjures spirits, resurrects dead people, performs a bloody surgery and takes the show into the seats, with various objects and some apparitions floating by the audience. Then he makes it even more interactive by killing an audience member on stage.

“Yeah, he murders an audience member, and then we call the audience member’s ghost back,” Teller said.

Teller added that there are no “stooges” in the theater, meaning no one from the show has been planted as the fake doomed-to-die audience member. Of course, no one is really killed. It’s all part of the illusions in the show, which Teller said are among the most technically complicated he has tackled.

“There are at least 20 magical effects packed into an hour and 20 minutes that have to look real and emotional. And man, that’s been hard,” he said.

The industry veterans, however, are up to the challenge.

Robbins’ showbiz career spans about three decades. Now based in New York, he’s known for his carnival act on Coney Island where he swallows swords and eats glass.

He’s appeared on “Late Night with David Letterman,” “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” He’s currently developing a TV series with Discovery Studios based on dark chapters in history.

Teller has been performing with Penn Jillette since 1975. Penn & Teller have starred in television series and specials. Their show has played off-Broadway and they currently perform at Rio in Las Vegas.

The Geffen performance of “Play Dead” is the show’s Southern California premiere, having first been presented off-Broadway in November 2010.

“The goal is really to just entertain people, just an evening of entertainment where the audience will come away not knowing how anything is done and maybe reflect a little on death and dying,” said Randall Arney, artistic director of the Geffen.

It’s not the first time that a supernatural or magic performance has been hosted at the venue.

William Friedkin’s 1973 film “The Exorcist,” arguably one of the scariest films of all time, was adapted for the stage and performed at the Geffen in July 2012. Last November, the venue presented “Nothing to Hide,” a magic show directed by actor Neil Patrick Harris.

“Play Dead” is another effort to present eclectic and different theater experiences for its audience, Arney said.

For Robbins, who said the show would not exist without his experiences in Long Beach, the performances will be a chance to do what he loves: Scare the heck out of people and then have them burst out in laughter, hopefully all within one breath.

“You’re never so alive as when you’re scared to death, and there’s nothing more lively than a laugh,” he said.

About the Author

Richard Guzman covers Arts and Entertainment for the Long Beach Press-Telegram, where he writes about art, theater, music and food. He is a graduate of CSU Northridge with a degree in journalism. Richard grew up in Los Angeles and has written about food, pop culture and art in the area. He has two young children and in his spare time enjoys riding his motorcycle and hiking. Reach the author at Richard.Guzman@presstelegram.com
or follow Richard on Twitter: @Richword.